Theatre Exam Review Definitions: Actor-manager: in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries in Europe and America, the head

of an acting company who organized the production Adaptations: adjustments actors make in response to the changing circumstances of their character Aesthetic Distance: the ability to observe a work of art with a degree of detachment and objectivity Agitprop: from agitation and propaganda, a form of political theatre first used by Marxists during the 1920s in Russia that conveys information in a simple and entertaining way to persuade an audience to its point of view Alba Emoting: a set of vocabulary of emotional expression using breath, facial attitude, and physical position to elicit sit primary emotions; developed by Chilean neuropsychologist Susana Bloch Alienation Effect: the emotional distancing of the audience from the dramatic action Alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds used to provoke an emotional response in the audience Antagonist: a character that directly thwarts the desires of the protagonist Apron: an extension of the proscenium stage protruding past the proscenium arch Aragoto: a rough style of performance used for superhuman figures in kabuki. These characters, found in history plays, wear bold makeup called kumadori and wild, colourful costumes Archetypal Characters: characters who embody the essence of particular human traits that enable them to speak across cultures and centuries Asides: short comments that reveal characters inner thoughts to the audience, often to comic effect Assonance: the repetition of vowel sounds for emotional effect Audition: a tryout for a role in a production at which actors perform either prepared material or read from a play for the director

Auteur: French term meaning author and originator of a concept, applied to stage directors who conceive a total performance rather that beginning with a play Autos Sacramentales: Christian religious drama developed in Spain circa the sixteenth century Avant-Garde: French term for the soldiers who march ahead of a military formation; applied to artistic works and artists who rebel against tradition and experiment with new forms Backlighting: lights coming from behind the actor that create silhouettes on stage Balconies: seating areas that overhang a third to a half of the orchestra or form horseshoe shaped tiers around the periphery of the auditorium in proscenium theatres Beat: a unit of dramatic action reflecting a single emotional desire or character objective Biomechanics: physical training system for efficient and expressive movement developed in Russia Black Box Theatre: a performance space, usually painted black, that permits the rearrangement of seating and playing areas for every production in a variety of traditional and nontraditional arrangements Blackface: a derogatory comic black stereotype expressed in makeup consisting of a blackened face with white circles around the eyes and mouth; originated in minstrel shows Blackout: a rapid and complete dimming of the lights on stage Blocking: the pattern of actors movement on stage Book: the written text of a musical Book Musical: a musical in which the story is told through spoken text, song, and dance Booth Stage: A portable thrust stage used by the actors in the Middle Ages Boxes: private seating areas in proscenium theatres set in the balcony above the orchestra that once separated the nobility and wealthy cases form the rest of the theatre-going public Box Office: a booth where theatre tickets are sold

Box Office Manager: the person who oversees theatre ticket sales and box office staff Box Set: a stage design in which flats from the back and sidewalls and sometimes over the ceiling of a room Breeches Roles: During the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, roles in which actresses played young men or characters disguised as men and dressed in short pants or breeches, revealing their legs Broadway: the great concentration of commercial theatres around Times Square in New York City Bunraku: Japanese puppet theatre Burlesque: a variety entertainment of the early twentieth century that included musical numbers, acrobatic numbers, and comedy duos, but was especially known for its bawdy humor and strip tease acts CAD: Computer programs that allow theatre designers to draft precise uniform drawings and to visualize design options Callback: second audition for a role that only a few actors are invited to attend Catharsis: the purging of our aggressive desires through art and enactment; the term was first used by Aristotle in the fourth century BCE Centering: a process of focused relaxations through which an actor integrates breath, movement, feeling, and thought to harness the bodys physical, emotional, and intellectual energy of performance Chariot-and-pole system: device for accomplishing instantaneous set changes invented by Giacomo Torelli and consisting of a series of ropes and pulleys attached to a succession of painted flat wings set in grooved tracks on the stage Cheat Out: to turn on an angle on a proscenium stage to allow the audience to see ones face Cliffhanger: a complicating incident usually placed at the end of an act so the audience is sent off at intermission impatient to find out how this last twist of fate will be resolved Climactic Structure: a tight-knit plot form in which the action builds casually to a moment of high emotional intensity followed by a final resolution Climax: the point of highest emotional intensity

Commedia DellArte: a theatre form that emerged in Italy during the sixteenth century, in which masked actors playing stock characters improvised on scenario using broad physical humor Commercial theatre: theatre done for profit in which investors back a production and take a capital return if a show is a success Complication: circumstances of a drama building on each other through cause and effect Concentration of attention: a technique developed by Stanislavski to keeps actors focus within stage reality not on the audience Concert Parties: a form of variety entertainment that developed in Anglophone Africa in the twenties combining African culture and American and European entertainments Conflict: Tension between two forces working against each other, creating struggles and obstacles for the characters to overcome Control Board: a computerized system that regulates the execution of light cues Costume Plot: a chart recording the costume pieces worn by each character in each scene of a play Costume Shop: the workshop where stage costumes are built and assembled Costume Shop Manager: the person who oversees costume shop personnel and the process of building and assembling stage costumes Crisis: the place in dramatic action where conflict comes to a head Cross-Dressing: when a man or woman on stage wears clothing traditionally associated with the opposite gender Cross-Fading: slowly diminishing one lighting cue while adding another to gradually transition from one cue to another Curtain: the starting or ending time of a show Cycle Plays: Medieval religious drama taken from events in the Old and New testaments

Dada: an artistic movement that reached its height from 1916-1922 as a response to the violence of WWI. It reflected the meaninglessness of the world, and replaced bourgeois conventions with spontaneity and freedom Dance Play: a danced theatre piece without dialogue in which everything is expressed in choreography, not words Deconstruction: the movement in literary criticism that questions the idea of fixed meaning, truths, or assumptions about texts. It is the hallmark of the postmodern aesthetic and has given license to directors to search for new meaning and forms in plays once thought to be confined to particular interpretations and styles Denouement: a translation of Aristotles unknotting, the act of bringing all the parts of a play to a final conclusion Deus Ex Machina: any dramatic device, outside of the main action, used to bring a play to a final resolution. Developed in ancient Greek drama, the god from a machine arrived at the end of a play to finalize the fates of the mortal characters on stage Dimmer Board: a board that controls the intensity of stage lights Dimmers: instruments that permit the gradual adjustment of the intensity of light Discovery Space: a curtained space at the back of the Elizabethan stage where characters or items could be concealed or revealed Dithyrambs: Ancient Greek hymns sung and danced in praise of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility Docudrama: a performance in which primary sources serve as the play text; often addressing pressing issues with theatrical immediacy Downstage: the area of the stage closest to the audience Dramatic structure: the scaffolding on which a playwright plots a tale to form or shapes the action Dramaturg: a preproduction aide who works with a director to help explain the text or with the playwright to help define it Drapes: fabric panel hung on stage as part of a design, or to outline the playing area, mask lighting or scenic elements, and conceal actors before they make their entrances Dress Parade: a procession of actors in costume that offers the director and designer an opportunity to see all the actors together, in costume, under stage lights

Dress Rehearsal: a rehearsal at which actors run through the show in costume Dressing the Set: adding final touches to a stage set Drops: Large pieces of painted canvas hung at the back of the stage to set a particular local or atmosphere Ekkyklema: a platform on wheels that rolls on stage; first used in the ancient Greek theatre Ellipsoidal reflector spotlight: a stage lighting instrument that projects a light with a sharp, clearly defined edge Emotional memory: the recalling of sensory details around a significant event in an actors life to evoke an emotional response Empathy: the capacity of the audience to identify emotionally with a character on stage Epic Theatre: a proletarian theatre trying to create social change by pioneering new approaches to the stage and stage technology Existentialism: a philosophic movement after WWII that depicts a senseless, godless world where human beings live in a meaningless void Exposition: the revelation of events that occurred before the start of the play through dialogue Expressionism: a style of theatre that projects characters inner emotional reality onto objects in the external world Fade: a gradual dimming of the stage lights Flats: single units of canvas or other material stretched over a wooden frame that can be painted and connected to each other to create walls or other elements of a stage set Fly Spaces: very high ceilings behind the proscenium arch of a theatre used to house painted scenery that is literally flown up and down on a system of pulleys to change the sets Follow Spots: stage lights with clearly defined beams that follow an actor in movement across the stage Floodlights: stage lights placed at the front of the stage

Foreshadowing: hints about events to come in the dramatic action that can be used to create or break expectations Fourth Wall: the theatrical convention of an invisible wall separating the stage from the audience Fresnel: also known as spherical reflector spotlight, a stage lighting instrument that produces a beam of light with a soft edge Futurism: an artistic movement in the early twentieth century that questioned old authority systems and structures and emphasized the energy, dynamism, and movement of time in modern existence Gels: thin, coloured films inserted in slots in front of lighting instruments to colour stage lights Genres: categories of drama Gesamtkunstwerk: Literally total art work. The union of all theatrical elements, developed by Wanger Given Circumstance: the physical and emotional conditions that determine the actions of a character Gobos: small metal plates with cutout, stencil-like patterns that slide in front of a light source to project shapes and patterns or effects on the stage Green Room: a space where actors and audience members can socialize after a performance Groundlings: name for lower class spectators in Shakespeares time who could not afford seats and stood for that duration of the performance in the pit Ground Plan: a view of the dimensions of the stage and the placement of set pieces as seen from above Guerilla Theatre: political action theatre in the street, so called because it sneaks up on the audience where they least expect it and aggressively exhorts them to engage politically Half-mask: a mask that covers only the top half of the face, leaving the mouth uncovered in order for the actor to speak Hanamichi: flower path. Runway in the kabuki theatre that cuts through the audience and leads to the stage on which actors make entrances and exits and perform important poses and speeches

High-Concept Productions: innovative interpretations of plays that express a unique directorial vision and provide illuminating new readings of well-known works House: the audience or the area of the theatre allocated to the audience House Manager: the person who makes sure the theatre is clean and safe and ready to receive the public Inciting Incident: an event that sets the dramatic action into motion Instrument Schedule: a chart that lists each lighting instrument by its number, specific location, purpose, wattage, the colour of the gel, and other important information Interculturalism: valuing and promoting an exchange and interaction among various cultures that may ignite interest or friction Kabuki: a popular Japanese performance tradition begun during the early seventeenth century Kathakali: a classical Indian dance theatre using highly stylized movement and elaborate make up and costumes Kyogen: a Japanese performance tradition that is the comic counterpart to the Noh Lazzi: set bits of comic stage business all guaranteed to get a laugh, used by acots of the Commedia DellArte Light Plot: a blueprint of the stage and auditorium, with the lighting grid and the location of each light to be used for a production specifically marked Lines of Business: roles in an acting company that particular actors played designated by types such as young lover, fop, ingnue, or old crone Literary managers: dramaturgs attached to theatre companies who are responsible for reading and evaluating plays for the artistic director and helping in other forms of play development such as hosting workshops or play readings Liturgical drama: theatrical performance that emerged from the Catholic liturgy during the Middle Ages Master Electrician: the person who oversees the hanging, focusing, and filtering of lights

Mechane: the large hand powered crane that hoisted actors above the back wall of the stage in ancient Greece, usually to portray a god Meter: the patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables that can draw attention to significant meanings in the text Mie: dramatic physical poses executed by kabuki actors at climactic moments, underscored by beats of wooden clappers Mime: a popular unscripted theatrical form in ancient Greece and Rome with stock characters, short improvised comic sketches, broad physical and acrobatic humor, juggling, music, and bawdy jokes. Today the term refers to silent or nearly silent performances and the actors that create them Minimalism: a style of modern art that uses the fewest elements necessary to convey meaning Minstrel Show: a nineteenth century racist performance style where white people portrayed African Americans Miracle Plays: medieval dramas depicting the lives of saints Model: 3D mock-up of the set design that gives the production team and the actors specific information about how the design will actually look and work in the space Monologues: passages from a play for solo actors Morality Plays: late medieval plays using allegorical characters to depict a moral lesson Motivated Light: light changes specifically indicated in the play text, such as a lamp turning on Motivated sounds: sounds with an identifiable source within the context of a play, such as a telephone ring Mudras: hand gestures used in Indian theatrical traditions Multiculturalism: a philosophy calling for respect for neighboring cultures living under the same political system Multifocus theatre: simultaneous performance in several playing areas during the same event that gives the audience a choice of focus and may require them to move about Naturalism: a nineteenth century movement that sought to paint a scientifically accurate picture of life as it lived

Natyasastra: a text on Sanskrit drama written sometime between 200 BCE and 200 CE containing and encyclopedia of information about theatre from the classical Sanskrit tradition Naumachiae: spectacular Roman theatrical events in which flooded arenas permitted naval battles, often resulting in real casualties New Stagecraft: the expression of highly theatrical trends of European modernism in American stage design Noh: a highly stylized classical Japanese performance tradition begun during the fourteenth century Not-for-profit Theatre: a theatrical institution in which the profit is channeled back into the producing organization to defray costs and to fund new projects Objective: in acting technique, what a character wants at any given moment that drives the action Off Broadway: Smaller New York Theatres in and out of the commercial theatre district that are so designated because they have fewer than 500 seats Off- Off Broadway: New York theatres that seek an alternative to the artistic constraints imposed on commercial theatre Onnagata: the female role type in kabuki; an idealized woman played by male actors in white makeup, black styled wigs, and womens kimono Onomatopoeia: the use of words that express the feeling of their meaning through sound Opening night: a shows first full priced public performance Opera: a dramatic musical written in the tradition of great European art music Operetta: a mid-nineteenth century bourgeois entertainment that uses opera features along with dance, farce, and clowning to tell a simple story of romance Orchestra: floor level seating in front a proscenium stage Orchestra Pit: the space below the apron of a proscenium stage that houses musicians Orientalism: a romanticization of Asia that led to the appropriation of Asian arts today

Pageant masters: in the middle ages, those that are responsible for organizing theatrical events Pageant Wagons: Mobile platform stages on wheels used in the Middle Ages to carry scenery through the town to the location of a performance Pantomime: a silent storytelling Paper tech: a walk-through of the technical aspects of the production with the designers and staff without actors present PAR: small, inexpensive portable lights that can generate different types of beams Parody: the exaggeration of individuals or artistic plays to make them appear ludicrous Passion plays: plays depicting events from the passion of Christ Performance art: an avant-garde form that saw performance as an extension of visual art in time, with more significance accorded to the visual image than the spoken text Performance studies: and academic field that looks at theatre as one kind of performance on a continuum with other kinds Performance texts: a record of all that will happen on time Performance traditions: theatrical forms whose staging, music, dance, characterization, masks, and acting are passed from generation to generation as a totality, preserving the form Personal Props: objects carried on stage by actors Pit: in the Elizabethan theatre, the area around the raised stage in which spectators could stand to watch the performance Plastiques: difficult physical actions for actors developed by Jerzy Grtowski Platforms: raised wooden constructions that can provide playing spaces on different levels Platform stages: during the middle ages, playing areas placed in front of background sets

Play text: a writtepn script containing the dialogue spoken by characters that can be interpreted by actors and directors as the basis for action on stage Plot: the ordering or structuring of the events that actually take place on stage Point of Attack: the point in the story at which action begins Postmodernism: a late twentieth century concept that replaces absolute values with relativism, opening up the possibility of many new and equally valid forms of artistic expression Practical: an onstage light such as a lamp that needs to appear controlled from the stage Presentational: a theatrical style that openly acknowledges the artificiality of a stage performance Preview: a performance before a production has officially opened that gives the director the opportunity to hone the show in front of a live audience Processional stage: moving stages that require the audience to move from one place to another to follow the action, or wait for the next wagon to appear Producer: the person who brings together a creative team with the necessary resources to create a production Production Manager: the person in charge of schedules, staffing, and making sure that the information relayed by the stage manager is carried out in a timely manner Prompt Book: the stage managers copy of the script on which is recorded blocking and cues Props: objects that will be used by actors in performance that may be carried on stage by the actor or that are part of the set Proscenium arch: a frame constructed over the front of the stage separating the audience from the performance space and forming a frame for the set Proscenium Stage: a configuration of a theatre space in which the audience faces the actors only on one side Protagonist: the lead role in a drama Psychological characters: character portraits so rich in detail and interest that spectators feel they can comprehend motivations and desires, and even a life for them that preexists their appearance in the play

Psychophysical action: Stanislavskis term for physical behavior that reveals the character and the objective Raked seating: seating areas on an incline providing solutions to sight line problems for the audience Rasa: literally tastes or flavors . A term from Indian theatre that refers to the different moods or feelings expressed in plays and by actors on stage Realism: the presentation of a stage world as a believable alternate reality where things happen much as they would in life and people behave in seemingly natural ways Representational: a theatrical style in which the stage reality attempts to represent real life and the actor seems to be living the part Resident Theatres: professional not for profit theatres around the US that now provide permanent theatre presence in almost every major city Revenge Plays: bloody dramas from the Roman era that influenced Elizabethan theatre Review: the brief, immediate response to a theatrical event that appears in print Revue: a musical form that does not tell a continuous story and moves from number to number Run-through: performance of a play from beginning to end without stopping during a rehearsal Satyr: a burlesque of mythical legends that provided comic relief after performances of tragedies in ancient Greece Scenario: a general plot outline used as the basis for improvisation Scene house: a curtained area at the back of a platform stage for concealment and costume changes Scene shop: the workshop where the set is constructed Scrim: a translucent cloth or gauze that can appear opaque when light shines on it from the front, or transparent when light shines on it from the back Serial structure: a series of scenes that do not follow a continuous story or even include the same characters

Shamans: priests or priestesses charged with communicating with the spirit world on behalf of the community to bring peace and prosperity to the populace or healing to the sick Sidelighting: lighting coming from the side of the stage that provides accents and highlights that is used often in dance and musical theatre to highlight the dances legs Sides: actors individual lines and cues, once copied by a stage manager Sight lines: clear vision of the stage action by the audience Skene: in the ancient Greek theatre, the stage house behind the area where the main characters perform Soliloquy: a lengthy solo speech through which a character reveals an interior state of mind Sound engineer: the person responsible for the functioning of acoustical equipment in a theatre Sound plot: a chart of all the connections and sound equipment used for a production Special: a light with a specific and unique dramatic function Spine: a central line of dramatic action that can guide directors in their creative choices Stage curtain: a curtain contained just inside the proscenium frame that can be raised or lowered to conceal set changes and to reveal the stage action Staged Reading: a reading of a play with actors on their feet, scripts in hand, and minimal props Stock Characters: representatives of a type that are defined by externals such as class, occupation, and marital status rather than by their individual characteristics Story: all events that happen or are mentioned in the text Storyboard: a series of sketches that show how the sets or costumes change to tell the story through time

Street Theatre: compelling theatre that uses music, spectacle, masks, costumes, dancing, drumming, or direct audience confrontation to engage with the public in co-opted public places Strike: the orderly dismantling of a production that follows a shows closing; includes taking down the set and lights, readying costumes for storage, and cleaning and preparing the theatre for the next production Style: the manner in which a performance depicts the world Subplot: a secondary dramatic action that echoes the main plot of a play through common subjects and themes that reinforce or comment on the central meaning of the drama Subtext: the meaning of dialogue to the character, which may be different from what is actually said. Literally the thoughts that underlie the text Super objective: the main goal of a play or character that drives the dramatic action Surrealism: a twentieth-century artistic style inspired by Freudian psychology that mined the unconscious for images that expressed the truth of our hidden desires and the free association of thought Symbolism: a late-nineteenth century artistic style that opposed the naturalists search for meaning in the concrete objects of the world, and felt truth lay in a metaphysical realm Talxhum: an ancient Korean masked dance theatre suppressed after the Japanese invasion in 1910 and now enjoying renewed interest Technical director: the individual responsible for executing the set designers plans and maintaining the theatre space, including its safety and equipment Technical rehearsal: the first opportunity for the director to work with all the design elements and designers simultaneously in rehearsal Theatre of the absurd: a term coined by critic Martin Esslin to describe plays that reflected the sense of alienation and meaninglessness of the generation that had lived through the horrific events of WW2 Theatre of cruelty: a named used by Antonin Artaud for a visceral theatre of sounds, movements, and images that assaulted the senses of the audience, opening up new levels of awareness Theatrical conventions: rules of conduct and understood communication codes used in the theatre

Upstage: the area of the stage farthest from the audience Upstaged: the claiming of audience attention when one actor walks directly behind another, obliging the downstage actor to turn away from the audience to address lines to the actor upstage Vaudeville: a popular American variety show form toward the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth that relied heavily on stand up comedy routines and musical numbers Verisimilitude: the concept that theatre should represent an idealized reality Viewpoints: a system of physical actor training that develops awareness of the basic components of movementline, rhythm, shape, tempo, and duration Voms: aisles for actors entranaces that run though the audiences in an arena theatre Wagon: a moving platform on wheels that serves as a mobile stage Warm-up: a series of physical and vocal exercises that prepare the body to act Wayang Kulit: Indonesian leather shadow puppet tradition Well-made play: a form developed during the nineteenth century that uses a tightly woven plot filled with complications that keep the audience deeply involved in the dramatic action West End: Londons commercial theatre district Wings: areas on the periphery of the playing area that can be masked to hide actors, technicians, props and scenery Xiqu: term for Chinese performance forms Yellowface: the use of makeup and prosthetics by white actors to play Asian characters Yugen: an asthetic term from noh meaning grace